This disclosure relates generally to the field of Configuration Management Database (CMDB) query technology. More particularly, but not by way of limitation, this disclosure refers to a method and system providing a combination of Natural Language (NL) query capability with application of inferential query techniques to access data from a CMDB.
A CMDB is a repository of information related to as many of the components of an information system as practical. Although repositories similar to CMDBs have been used by Information Technology (IT) departments for many years, the term CMDB has more recently been formalized with the Infrastructure Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL). ITIL is a set of concepts and practices for managing IT services, development, and operations. ITIL gives detailed descriptions of a number of important IT practices and provides comprehensive checklists, tasks, and procedures that any IT organization can tailor to its needs. ITIL is published in a series of books, each of which covers an IT management topic. The names ITIL and IT Infrastructure Library are registered trademarks of the United Kingdom's Office of Government Commerce (OGC). Note CMDB references are used throughout this disclosure, however, the term Configuration Management System (CMS) is a term introduced in newer releases of ITIL. Accordingly, aspects of this disclosure will clearly be applicable to at least a portion of a CMS.
In the ITIL context, a CMDB represents the authorized configuration of the significant components of an IT environment. A CMDB helps an organization understand relationships between these components and track their configuration. The CMDB can be a fundamental component of the ITIL framework's Configuration Management (CM) process. CMDB implementations often involve federation (the inclusion of data into the CMDB from other sources) of multiple repositories (e.g., Asset Management databases, HR systems, Incident and Problem systems, Change Management systems, discovery tools, inventory and audit systems, etc) in such a way that the source of the data retains control of the data. Federation is usually distinguished from ETL (extract, transform, load) solutions in which data is copied into the CMDB.
The CMDB records configuration items (CI) and details about the important attributes and relationships between CIs. Configuration managers usually describe CIs using three configurable attributes: Technical, Ownership, and Relationship.
Today graph based queries to a CMDB are focused on query graphs of relationships between and among CIs. Current CMDB graph query technologies do not utilize additional data that may be derived from explicitly stored relationship data in a CMDB. To overcome these and other limitations, it is desirable to provide an enhanced query capability for use in retrieving information from a CMDB, thereby, enhancing both the input mechanism defining the query and expand upon pertinent results returned to a user or application performing the query.